In various machines such as vending machines, food machines, candy machines, refrigerated drink machines, and the like, there is ordinarily provided a lock assembly to prevent unauthorized access to the contents thereof. For example, some vending machines are provided with a key-activated lock assembly such as a pop-out T-handle lock assembly which allows an authorized user to open the door of the vending machine with a properly-encoded key. Such T-handle lock assemblies are well known in the art, as evidenced by numerous patents including U.S. Pat. No. 3,089,330 (Kerr), U.S. Pat. No. 3,550,412 (Pitel et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,552,001 (Roop), U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,721 (Steibach), U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,561 (Myers), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,548,982 (Rawling). With such lock assemblies, the door is initially closed in a loose manner to catch the locking components of the lock assembly. Next, the handle of the locking assembly is rotated to draw the door against the housing of the vending machine and to compress a seal between the door and the housing. Other, more modern, vending machines are provided with a keypad-activated lock assembly which permits the door of the vending machine to be opened when a predetermined access code or combination is entered into the keypad. The prior art, however, failed to provide a lock assembly which automatically pulls the door of a vending machine into a completely closed position against the housing and/or a lock assembly which utilizes a remotely controlled electronic latching mechanism to lock and unlock the door. More recently, however, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,068,305 (Myers et al.) such a locking system was proposed. Further refinements, improvements and better, different and improved locking components and systems have been sought by users and manufacturers of the machines.